CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Nyx is sitting in a booth at the grill the next day, and then Damon sits down in front of her. She looks at him. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize. I was wrong to feed you my blood." He tells her, and she nods.

"Yeah, you were."

"I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, Nycole... But I need it."

She sighs as she looks at him. "And I need some time, Damon. I have so much running through my head... I just can't do this right now." She tells him, and he nods.

"Sure. Of course​. Take all the time you need." He stands up and walks away, leaving her alone at her table again.

Nyx sighs as she sinks into her seat, and she pushes her plate of food away from her. She didn't get much sleep last night, and she's really not even hungry. But she feels like she has to eat something.

"Are you alright?" Tyler asks as he walks over to her.

"Not even close." She admits as she looks over at him. "I didn't know it was possible to hurt this much."

"Is there anything that I can do?" He asks as he slides into the seat across from her, and she shakes her head.

"Not unless you can bring Jenna and John back." She tells him.

"I'm so sorry." He says, and she nods.

"Me too."

"Caroline filled me in on everything that's happened." He says. "She told me about John and Isobel."

She sighs. "I may not have liked Isobel at all, and my relationship with John definitely wasn't great, but they were still my parents." She shakes her head, tears welling up in her dark brown eyes again. "And Jenna... She wasn't​ technically my parent, but it felt like she was, you know?"

"I'm sorry, Nyx."

"I lost five parents in less than a year. I have the worst life ever." She wipes tears from under her eyes.

"Elena's in the same boat." He says.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." She nods. "Hey, I'm sorry about Jules. I know she was a lot of help to you." She says, and he sighs.

"Thanks."

Stefan walks over to them then and he looks down at her. "Can I sit?" He asks.

"The man who tried to trade his life for my aunt's? Of course." She moves over and he sits down next to her.

"I have some bad news." He says, and she sighs as she sinks into her seat again.

"Okay, go ahead." She mutters.

"After Damon saved Tyler and Caroline from the tomb, he was, uh..." He looks at Tyler, and Nyx sits up.

"He was what, Stefan?" She questions.

"Bitten." He says.

"What?" Tyler's eyebrows furrow as he looks at the vampire across from him.

"Damon's dying, and he's given up. I have a lead on a cure, but I need you to convince him that there's still hope. I know it's a lot to ask, and I'm sorry—"

"I can't, Stefan." Nyx cuts him off. "I'm barely keeping it together here. I can't make someone else feel better when I feel like the world is crashing down around me. I'm sorry, I just..."

"It's okay." He nods. "I'll​ take care of it."

"I'm sorry, Stefan. I really​ am." She says. "I just— I need to figure out my life before I do anything else."

He puts his hand on hers. "I'll handle it, Nycole. We probably put too much pressure on you most of the time anyway." He says and then gets up.

"You wanna play some pool?" Tyler asks, and she sighs as she looks at him.

—

"Nyx, I've got Damon at the Boarding​ House. Meet me here please. I need help." Elena tells her sister, and Nyx hangs up the phone.

She runs into the Boarding House and goes straight up to Damon's bedroom. "Hey, how's he doing?" She asks when she sees her sister beside his bed.

"Not good." The younger girl tells her as she walks over to them.

"You guys need to​ get out of here. I could hurt you." Damon says.

"Oh, please. I could kick your ass even when you're healthy​." Nyx says, and a small smile spreads across his lips. She looks back at Elena. "Why don't you go wait for Stefan? I'll stay with Damon."

"Are you sure?" Elena asks, and she nods.

She leaves, and Nyx looks back at the sick vampire. "You should go." He repeats.

"You don't scare me, remember?" She says as she sits down next to him on his bed. She picks up the hand-towel that Elena left laying beside him.

"All those years, I blamed Stefan." He says as she uses the towel to wipe some of the sweat from his forehead. "No one forced me to love her. It was my own choice." He's talking about Katherine.

"She let you believe that she was someone she wasn't. That's not your fault, Damon." Nycole says.

"I made the wrong choice." He looks up at her. "Tell Stefan I'm sorry."

"I will." She tells him, and he closes his eyes.

Nyx sits with her back against his pillows, and he leans against her. She wraps her arm around him, and the back of his shoulder rests against her chest.

"This is even more pitiful than I thought." He says, his voice weak.

"Damon Salvatore, pitiful? Never." She says. "Do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"Take another leap of faith with me. I mean, you sort of owe me after what happened the last time I asked." She says as she looks at him. "Just don't give up yet."

"I've made a lot of choices that have gotten me here. I deserve this." He tells her. "I deserve to die."

"There are a lot of monsters in the world that deserve to die. Believe me, I would know." She says. "But you are not one of them, Damon."

"Yes, I am. But it's okay, Nycole. 'Cause if I'd chosen differently, I wouldn't have met you." He says, and she moves so that she's laying down beside him. "I'm so sorry, I've done so many things that hurt you."

"We've all done things we're not proud of. I forgive you, Damon." She tells him.

"I know you love Dean. And that it will always be Dean." He says, and she lays her head on his shoulder. "But I love you."

"I love you, Damon. Not in the same way, but I do love you." She tells him as she takes his hand in hers. "I think that's why I get so angry with you these days."

"You should have met me in 1864. You would've liked me better then."

"You're not all bad, you know." She says. "Bad people don't risk their lives to try and fix what they did wrong, or save someone in a way that they don't want to be saved even when you know it'll make them hate you for it. You have your good qualities too, Damon."

"You really believe that?" He asks.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

"Thank you." He says and a small smile crosses his face.

"You're welcome." She chuckles.

"Well, it's me you should be thanking. I mean, I'm the one who brought the cure." Katherine says from the doorway of his room, and Nyx quickly gets up off of Damon's bed. "I thought you were dead." She says to Nyx as she walks over to him.

"I was." Nycole tells her.

"You got free." Damon says as she sits where Nyx had been laying.

"Yep. Finally." She says as she gives him the cure.

"And you still came here?"

"I owed you one." She gets up.

"Is Stefan downstairs with Elena?" Nyx asks.

"No. He's paying for this." She holds up the bottle that the cure was in. "He gave himself over to Klaus. I wouldn't expect him anytime soon."

"Wait. What do you mean, he gave himself over to Klaus?" She questions.

"He just sacrificed everything to save his brother, including your sister." She says. "Goodbye, Nycole."

"Does she know?" Nyx asks as she walks toward the door.

Katherine stops and looks at her, a small smile on her lips. "Of course she knows." She tosses the bottle that the cure was in to Nyx and then disappears.

Nyx looks at Damon as he starts to push himself up. He's slowly regaining some of his strength now that his body is healing. She then turns toward his door and starts running down to the living room to find her sister.

"Elena!" She finds her sitting on the couch with tears in her eyes. "Elena."

She looks up at her older sister. "He's gone." She says, and Nyx walks over and sits down beside her. She wraps her arm around her younger sister, and Elena leans into her as she cries.

—

The twins walk into their house, gaining the attention of the men inside, and Elena goes straight upstairs. Dean and Sam both stand up and look over at Nycole.

"Is everything​ okay?" Dean asks.

"No, not really. Stefan made a deal with Klaus. He traded his freedom for a cure to heal his brother." She tells the two boys. "Stefan's​ gone."

"What?" Sam asks, but she simply leaves that part as it is. She doesn't know anything else anyway.

"I gave Elena John's ring to give to Ric."

"Why would you do that?" Dean asks.

"Because living in this town, he's gonna need it." She says. "We're leaving."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't stay here. I just can't. I already talked to Elena and Jeremy, they both understand." She tells them.

"Are you sure? I mean, are you going to be okay leaving them?" He asks, and she shrugs.

"I'll survive. Somehow I always do."

The next morning, they're all outside because Nyx and the Winchesters are getting ready to leave Mystic Falls. The hunters are currently surrounded by her family.

"Take care of yourself, kid." Ric says as he hugs Nycole.

"I will." She says as she pulls back and looks at him and her siblings. "Be careful here."

"Of course." Elena says, and Nyx walks over to Dean and Sam.

"You ready?" Sam asks, and she nods.

Dean sighs​ as he looks around. "I'm really starting to hate this place." He says, and Nyx nods.

"Let's go." She sighs.

"Hey!" Jeremy calls after them. "You take care of my sister or I'll kick both of your asses. I don't care that she thinks I can't." He says, and Nyx smirks.

"We'll take care of her." Dean says, and Sam nods before they get into the Impala.